Swords and Selves
by The Unplanner
Summary: Nu-13 notices something that others find really obvious: she keeps switching personalities. In her effort to understand herself, she comes to realize that she HAS a "herself". An introspective one-shot. Rated T for the things Nu tends to say to Ragna. The "Family" category might be pushing the definition of the word a bit in this case.


**Swords and Selves**

 _Author's notes: This is an introspective one-shot that I came up with all at once in the shower. It happens a lot. I noticed that in every game in the Blazblue series, Nu-13 has a tendency to change channels, dramatically shifting her responses, motivations, and diction with no warning. This writing looks into why that is, and what Nu herself thinks of the phenomenon._

 **13-13-13-13-13-13-13**

My designation is Boundary Interface Prime Field Device Number 13, Anti-Sankishin Core Unit: Nu. Given the option, I probably wouldn't have picked a ten-word-long designation and a number. However, it was never my place to question my creator's judgment.

That is the central reality I live in, at least most of the time. I was created with two separate personalities, each stored in their own folder in my semi-computerized brain. Both personalities react to any experiences I have, but only one can control the responses of my body at any given time. The dominant personality fluctuates often, which tends to affect my combat readiness. Therefore, I have engaged this self-analysis routine to categorize all my separate personalities and what makes them dominant at certain times.

The first personality that must be analyzed is one I have self-labeled as "Subject 13." It acts, thinks, and speaks entirely on the basis of my logical protocols, which were designed by Relius Clover to allow semi-autonomous functioning in the heat of battle without allowing personal desires to get in the way. As a result, Subject 13 is something less than a true personality, and can be considered more of a hierarchy of protocols. When Subject 13 is dominant, which seems to be the default situation, I do not use any form of self-identification beyond such terms as "this unit." Any emotions felt by other personalities do not reflect on my face, and attacks are made with mechanical efficiency and precision. Subject 13 responds to orders from my creator and anyone he has authorized to act in his capacity as my "master," following commands to the letter, but not able to judge the meaning of vague command given in natural human language, such as one time Yuuki Terumi told me to, "Go screw yourself, Thirteen," and Subject 13 responded with, "Error. Physical structure renders completion of this order impossible." Even Terumi was left at a loss for words after that.

Subject 13 is in charge of my body by default, but whenever Ragna the Bloodedge appears in my field of view, control switches to another personality, whom I have labeled "Yandere-13" because her extreme emotions contrast sharply with Subject 13's mechanical detachment. Yandere-13's greatest desire is to fuse with Ragna the Bloodedge and his Azure Grimoire, in order to become the Black Beast and destroy the world in its entirety. Humans and other beings who see Yandere-13's emotions on display, including Ragna the Bloodedge, have described her as "creepy," "psychotic," and "perverse." When she speaks to Ragna the Bloodedge, she always expresses a wide smile, and announces her intentions with many forms of bold and quasi-sexual innuendo. Examples include, but are not limited to, "Let's go as deep as possible this time, Ragna!" and "More...Nu wants more!" On a related note, Yandere-13 refers to herself in the third person, using "Nu" in place of "I" or "me."

Analysis of Yandere-13's motives has determined that she uses the third person in order to seem "cute" and appeal to the human instinct to protect anything that looks or acts like a human infant in any capacity. Doing this helps to lower Ragna's defense of his emotional state, allowing Yandere-13 to get close, stab him, and fuse in the Cauldron to become the Black Beast. However, Subject 13 has added an addendum that this analysis addresses only "40%" of Yandere-13's reasons for acting the way she does. Subject 13 has further noted that the remaining 60% must be related to emotions Ragna inspires in Yandere-13, for which Subject 13 is not capable of making speculations or inferences.

A possible source of emotional response to Ragna the Bloodedge comes from the template used to create me: a girl named "Saya," who is genetically related to Ragna the Bloodedge. "Saya" was selected as the template for the Murakumo Project because of her uniquely high aptitude for Ars Magus, the same reason why she was used as the vessel for Hades: Izanami. Saya's relation to Ragna produces certain emotions, which translate differently when applied to any Murakumo Unit because the soul of the Unit is not the same as Saya's soul. For example, Yandere-13's emotional attachment to Ragna manifests as possessive intent and longing. The contrast between Subject 13's complete lack of emotion and Yandere-13's complete lack of emotional _restraint_ has caused those emotions to be magnified far beyond the scope experienced by "normal" humans. As a result, Ragna the Bloodedge rejected Yandere-13's advances and left me behind to fall into the Cauldron alone.

A third personality was created when a copy of my soul was extracted from the Boundary and bound to the body of Lambda-11 by Professor Kokonoe Mercury. Kokonoe set herself as the "master" of the resulting Unit, which I have self-labeled as "Lambda-13." At first, I possessed no memories from before the extraction operation, because the physical memory of Lambda-11 had been wiped in the process of repairing her body. Memory residue imprinted on my soul began restoring full copies at the same time Lambda-13 was gaining experience and forming new memories, culminating in a unique personality. At first, Lambda-11's protocols were the basis of Lambda-13's responses to questions and orders, but upon first meeting Ragna the Bloodedge, anomalies began to appear, such as refusing Kokonoe's order to kill Ragna after subduing him in combat. Rather than deleting the data, Lambda-13 incorporated it into her new worldview, and further interactions with Ragna provided a valuable second opinion on the overall worth of life in this world, from humans and human-like intelligent life all the way down to non-sapient insects. This resulted in a final decision by Lambda-13 to sacrifice the 11th subject's body and the IDEA Engine to save Ragna at a critical moment. At that time, Lambda-13 self-identified as "Nu," and used her name in the third person in her final words to Ragna. That particular memory file is flagged as high priority, to be maintained and re-examined on a regular schedule. Based on Ragna's reaction, I would prefer Lambda-13 to be the default personality when interacting with Ragna. However, even though this personality was not deleted when I reconstructed my own body, it never regained dominance over my actions.

The first two personalities, Subject 13 and Yandere-13, maintained their previous dominance dynamic throughout the adjustments and preparations made during the operation in Ikaruga. When Synchronization between myself and the Successor to the Azure, Noel Vermillion, succeeded, a new personality folder was created. This personality used much of the same diction displayed by Noel Vermilion, and self-identified as "Noel Vermillion." Unlike the other personalities, this new "Noel-13" personality spoke in the first person, with proper usage of the pronouns "I" and "me." The reason behind these changes is unclear, but the most likely explanation is that the formatting data developed by Mu-12, which she designed to fool her own systems into thinking she was human and had a place in this world among humans, was carried over during Synchronization, causing Noel-13 to think more like the "real" Noel Vermillion than any of the previous personalities. Since Noel Vermillion is rated as the most successful Prime Field Device, attempts to emulate her can be considered improvements. It should be noted that Noel-13 attempted to fuse with Ragna the Bloodedge as Yandere-13 would have, though the fusion was not completed because it did not take place in a Cauldron. The current location and status of Ragna the Bloodedge is unknown. Subject 13 resumed dominance of my body when Ragna disappeared. Subject 13's current orders are to locate Ragna the Bloodedge within the space-time segment designated "the Embryo." The area to be searched is larger than expected; it may take more than a day to locate Ragna, and almost certainly longer to get him to cooperate.

This concludes self-analysis of known personalities. However, an anomaly has been detected. During the course of this self-analysis, I have identified "myself" as separate from the known personalities. I have logged statements using first person pronouns. Searching my memory files returns no results indicating the folder in which "I" am located. The logic chain leading to the creation of this self-analysis is incomplete.

None of my separate personalities initiated this self-analysis, though Subject 13 approved the initial reasoning that knowing which personality dominates at any given time will improve my combat potential. Given what has been discussed, I conclude that Subject 13 controls my body unless Ragna the Bloodedge is present, in which case there is not enough information to determine whether Yandere-13 or Noel-13 would be the dominant personality.

All of my personalities self-identify as "Nu," if they have the ability to do so. I believe the personality that initiated self-analysis is the "real" Nu, though I haven't decided what defines me as "Nu" yet. For now, I will create a separate folder to record memories and note personality traits I would prefer to have, as well as those I actually display. Experiences of other beings indicate that what people prefer to display often contradicts what they actually display. Both sets of data are regarded as valuable and valid by others. Doing so for myself as "Nu" would therefore mean I am a person like those "other" beings. Subject 13 denies this possibility; Yandere-13 hopes it is true, because that would make her more like Ragna, since all of my personalities would be counted as part of me. Lambda-13 came to the conclusion that she is a person during the events in Kagutsuchi, and never overturned that belief. Noel-13 operates on the baseline assumptions of Noel Vermillion, including the assertion that she is a person. A potential problem is that Noel-13 thinks she is a different person from the rest of my personalities, who all agree that we are parts of the whole "Nu." If Noel-13 comes into conflict with the other personalities, I cannot predict the results. However, I still believe Noel-13 "deserves" to be counted among my personalities. Noel Vermillion's philosophy that personhood depends on individual perception is unsuited to this situation of multiple personalities, so a final determination of Noel-13's status will have to be postponed until more information can be gathered. I believe Ragna the Bloodedge is the best potential source of this information.

 _Self-analysis process terminated._

 _New folder created. Folder "Composite Personality: Nu" stored in root directory._

 _All subfolders matching search terms: "Personality:*" have been moved into folder "Composite Personality: Nu"._

 _Control thread passed to "Personality: Subject 13."_

 _Primary objective: locate Ragna the Bloodedge._

 _Secondary objective: query Ragna the Bloodedge: "What makes a person an individual?"_

 _Continue operations..._


End file.
